History provides us with many examples of dreadful and horrific medical scandals and practices: The Tuskegee syphilis study, lobotomies for mental illness, and bloodletting as a cure-all, to name a few.

Recently, the French Senate added another one to the list: Sex reassignment surgery for minors.

French Senators want to ban gender transition treatments for under-18s, after a report described sex reassignment in minors as potentially “one of the greatest ethical scandals in the history of medicine”.

The report, commissioned by the opposition centre-Right Les Republicains (LR) party, documents various practices by health professionals, which it claims are indoctrinated by a “trans-affirmative” ideology under the sway of experienced trans-activist associations.

The report, which cites a “tense scientific and medical debate”, accuses such associations of encouraging gender transition in minors via intense propaganda campaigns on social media.

Jacqueline Eustache-Brinio, an LR senator who led the working group behind the report, concluded that “fashion plays a big role” in the rise of gender reassignment treatments.

Over a year ago, I did a detailed analysis of the devastating harm that could result from children using hormone-blocking therapies. While I have no medical degree, it takes only a modicum of basic understanding of biology and common sense to see that the rationale behind pressing for children to be permitted to receive these treatments (even at parental request) went against the Hippocratic Oath not to harm.

However, as with “The Science™” behind COVID and global warming, the reasoned debate was silenced, and challenges to the woke ideology were dismissed entirely. The French report explicitly points to the militant ideology promoting gender reassignment surgeries.

The report, which is detailed and well-argued, points to a number of abuses by health professionals, indoctrinated by a “trans-affirmative” ideology and subject to the influence of experienced trans activist associations. The report’s authors accuse these associations of unreasonably encouraging gender transition in minors via an intense propaganda campaign on social media.

The scandal has been brewing for several months, thanks to the mobilisation of psychologists, psychiatrists, educators, and parents, who have denounced the ravages of this militant ideology among fragile and suffering young people, to whom gender transition is proposed as a miracle solution to the psychological problems they may be experiencing.

The report notes that trans activists have stifled debate, undermined science, and inserted themselves in between parents and children in the name of preventing discrimination:

— “In France, as abroad, it appears that the scientific and medical debate on the subject is tense.… pic.twitter.com/wnCiijRFhT

— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) March 24, 2024

And, like the pseudoscience behind COVID and global warming, real scientists are now being heard, and hard data is being used to reverse the poor policy. France isn’t the only European nation beginning to set limits on when gender reassignment treatments can begin.

England has set the age to 16.

The National Health Service England recently cemented a policy first issued on an interim basis almost a year ago that sets a minimum age at which puberty blockers can be started, along with other requirements. NHS England says there is not enough evidence about their long-term effects, including “sexual, cognitive or broader developmental outcomes.”

Starting April 1, NHS England will not prescribe puberty blockers — drugs that suppress sex hormones during puberty — as a “routine treatment” to children and other young people seeking gender transitions. In practice, the decision also applies to Wales, which does not have any NHS gender clinics for children. Northern Ireland says it will adopt England’s policy; Scotland is weighing it.

Also, a report from the Netherlands indicates people with issues related to gender are sent to surgeries and intense medical treatment too quickly.

However, some of them would benefit more from treatment by their family doctor or psychological help, the Dutch daily Volkskrant writes based on a report from the Radboud University. The researchers speak of a “mismatch between the offered specialised care and the need of transgender people themselves.”

Gender clinics often focus mainly on medical treatment with hormones and surgery, the newspaper writes. And some people have no need for that. Some would rather explore their gender identity than treat it, the Dutch daily NRC cites the report.

I don’t know if we have passed “peak woke.” However, I am hopeful we have passed peak “woke science.”

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